When I’m not managing websites like this one for Channel 4, I am working on sculpture in my own studio, so the Big Art Project neatly ties up these two sides of my life!

Maybe I’m noticing it more now, but public art really seems to be in the news. . .

The 100 cast-iron figures staring out to sea – Another Place by Antony Gormley – now enjoy permanent residence on Crosby beach, Merseyside, after public pressure persuaded Sefton council to keep them. More figures have just been installed on London rooftops, particularly around the Hayward Gallery where an exhibition of Gormley’s work runs until August

Elisabeth Frink, an equally féted artist of an earlier generation, has hit the headlines as property developers, The Avon Group, plan to remove her bronzes, Desert Quartet from the Montague Centre in Worthing. The 20th Century Society (www.c20society.org.uk) and pmsa (www.pmsa.org.uk) object, saying that permanent inclusion of Frink’s sculpture was a condition of the original planning permission. Can any Big Art Mobloggers in the Worthing area let us all see what the fuss is about?

Less well known, but well represented here on the Big Art Mob are the artists in Situation Leeds (www.situationleeds.org.uk) a festival of artists’ interventions around the city. Down south and maybe not yet known at all, are those applying for inclusion in Kensington and Chelsea’s planned public art trail (contact: arts@rbkc.gov.uk). Several commissions are being offered in Wales, where major public artworks are being proposed for the 'St David's 2' development in Cardiff (www.stdavids2.com).

There's even been a call from a consortium including Eurostar for an ‘Angel of the South’ for Ebbsfleet, Kent, in time for the London Olympics. This suggests a question to me: with the Olympics looming, where will all the money (from a government dept. with responsibility for both art and sport) be going in the next few years? (maybe this is one for a discussion on the Big Art Forum ?)

Now the Big Art Mob is up and running, I’ll be traveling around the country, visiting colleges, arts centres etc., setting up moblog workshops. We’ll attempt to fill any gaps in the ever-expanding Big Art Map – anyone want to invite me to their own arts centre or school? We’ll see what we can do!

Please watch this space for further reports and keep checking the website for updates on the developing artworks in the seven communities Channel 4’s Big Art Project is filming in the run up to the series.

Nick Pearson
Big Art Project website manager

This afternoon I've been trolling around Holborn and Covent Garden snapping public art on my mobile phone, dragging two remarkably patient children behind me. Like the people in the pic above (taken on said phone down in Brighton a couple of weeks ago), you may well ask "Why?".

A few days ago we launched the Big Art Mob. Part of this Big Art Project website, it enables people interested in public art, indeed art and culture generally, to send photos and other media (text, video, audio) directly from their mobiles to a picture-led 'blog' where they instantly appear. There they can be 'tagged' (labeled with key words) by both the contributor and subsequent viewers to make the submitted images easier to find and connect.

But in the immortal words of the Cat in the Hat, "But that is not all. Oh no, that is not all!" On Friday the Big Art Map was launched. This makes it possible to automatically place those submitted images on an interactive map which has ambitions to be the most comprehensive map of UK public art ever created. And what's most exciting is that it's being created by the UK public.

Both the Big Art Mob and its Big Art Map dimension were commissioned by me at Channel 4 (where I am the New Media Commissioner for Factual programmes like the Big Art Project) from a great emerging mobile technology business called Moblog UK. My main contact there is Alfie Dennen who, among other achievements, set up the We Are Not Afraid website in the wake of the 7/7 bombings. The collaboration has been great fun with everyone really committed and I'm delighted to have the work out in the public arena (albeit in Beta form for now).

You can see it at: www.bigartmob.com and easy instructions are there for how to have a go yourself. It's simply a question of taking a pic and sending it from your phone to a specific number. So moving on from the Cat in the Hat to Green Eggs and Ham, and slightly adapting the equally immortal words of Sam I Am to the activity of 'moblogging': "Try it! Try it! And you may [like it]. Try it and you may, I say."

Adam Gee
New Media Commissioner, Channel 4

April 2007 and the start of the home strait for The Big Art Project, yet there’s still a long way to go… Having worked in the industry for nearly 5 years, I can honestly say that this is one of the most exciting, fulfilling – and yet at times exasperating projects I have ever worked on – but the thought of standing here in 5, 10 or even 20 years time and perhaps being able to travel to St.Helens and see a sculpture still standing on the hillside; to visit the Waterworks Park in Belfast and see people wandering through a sea of artworks started by The Big Art Project; making my first visit to Mull and Cardigan to see what Art has created on the Island or the Quayside; standing on the Olympic Greenway in Newham looking up and seeing what the Alp has become; Driving up the M1 and (hopefully) seeing the Towers still standing in all their cultural glory.

Personally, I find the Burnley project the most exciting – there is something amazing about watching a group of Young People developing in front of us, and becoming more articulate about their wants and desires by the day. They truly embrace the spirit of the project – finding Art a fun and exciting way of bringing their community together. I’m not sure whether it’s childhood innocence or not – but I think there, more than on any of the other sites, they believe they are part of something big and amazing in the future… (I could be wrong – and I’ll allow the other nominees, and people in the office to come back at me on that one!!)

Sitting in the production office for the most part, I think that people out on the sites can forget that we’re also living the rollercoaster ride with them (except 7 times over!!) There are days when the team sit at our desks buzzing, because funding is falling into place and we’re hearing positive feedback from the sites with news of Artist visits, community projects getting off the ground, and some of the proposals feeling like they are about to become a reality.

When I joined the project 9 months ago and there was little money on the table it was hard to believe that we would actually make it to the point where we are now, standing on the brink of something amazing. That said, it’s not all fun and sunshine, and we sit here on other days feeling the frustrations and concerns from nominators on the site, when it seems like all of our efforts are running into a brick wall. Fortunately, the team behind this project are exceptional – and when one person is feeling project fatigue, there is someone else there to pick them up – and I hope that over the next year, that is something that will continue not just in our production office but out on the sites too. As much as I’d like to think that the next year will just be an exciting upwards surge towards the unveiling of each project, I have a feeling that there will be a few bumps along the way!

Over the last few weeks, with the transmission of ‘Watch This Space’ – the series of 3 Minute Wonders that broadcast on Channel 4, I began for the first time to believe in this project becoming real. Watching them for the first time made the hairs on my neck stand on end – it was a shame that we couldn’t produce one for every site. However, the response I have received from friends, family, colleagues and members of the general public is one of overwhelming support for the project. People are gaining interest in how the sites were chosen, what is going to happen, and how, and by who – and the one thing that for me makes this project, is how each one of us can bring something to the table – no matter how small. This project won’t happen if everyone sits back and waits… we have to make it happen….

It’s a challenge that I think we can rise to… talking of which – I should get back to work!

Jo Taylor
Jnr Production Manager - Carbon Media